Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo

 

Nobody's Fool

by Richard Russo

Donald "Sully" Sullivan is living with the ghost of his father, whose abuse and neglect pervades Sully's daily doings in the small town of North Bath, NY where the 60-year-old child in a man's body lives and works. Sully is the embodiment of a person who gets in his own way and refuses to change. And he doesn't really change much during the entirety of Nobody's Fool.

Sully lives a bachelor's life in a second floor flat in a house owned by his 8th grade English teacher Miss Peoples, whom he holds some affection for. He spends his days at his various hangouts (a diner, a bar, the OTB betting parlor, and his juvenile boss's office), always short of cash and carting around his dimwit best friend. He is romantically involved with a married woman, flirts with various other women, and nurses a bum knee. On top of this, he has quit college, a prerequisite to getting disability benefits. Another friend, Wirf who is his lawyer, councils Sully while they get drunk every night, and of course Sully never listens to any advice Wirf (or anyone else) gives him.

Sully is a man full of character flaws, but he doesn't pity himself. He perpetually moves forward, dealing with things as they come, albeit usually in the wrong ways. When his son, whom he barely played any roll in bringing up, returns to North Bath having been denied tenure as a professor and decides to leave his wife (while carrying on an affair of his own, and toting along with him his oldest son, Sully finds that he has to face the demons he's been avoiding, mainly that of the grudge he holds against his father. The run is that he is very much like the man, except his temperament is more joking than mean.

Along with this story line is that of Miss Peoples, who spends her days talking to a picture of her deceased husband and an African mask named Ed, carting around her neighbor Mrs Gruber form one eatery to another, and dodging the demands of her son, whom she believes is out to take her for all she's worth and put her in an old folks home. Miss Peoples is slowly losing her ability to live on her own and has high expectations of the people in North Bath, most of whom she taught, especially Sully. Unfortunately none of her expectations are met.

Nobody's Fool was incredibly engaging. The narrative and prose were fun and humorous, very witty as the characters took the piss out of one another. This story is set very close to where I live in New York State and I recognized the subtly disguised towns immediately, which was fun for me. Miss People and Sully was fun to read about and follow through the week or so the story covers. I would definitely read more of Russo's books. The problem is, I can't give the book 5 stars. It was a conundrum for me to figure out why. Until I read a synopsis by Tom Heggen (https://www.frombriefstobooks.com/2016/05/nobodys-fool-by-richard-russo/), and I had to agree that the story lacked subtlety and depth. I finished the book feeling like I wanted something more form it than I got. A very good and fun book, but not great. I laughed and rooted for Sully, but ultimately I wasn't emotionally affected by it.

For that reason alone I have to knock back a half a point. Nobody's Fool is, for me, close to perfect, but just misses the mark. I'm giving it 4.5 stars.